Convergence

Do you know that Moodle, the system that powers the UCSF CLE is used by other universities and training providers around the world?

For the second consecutive year, Moodle has offered a MOOC (massively open online course) for the millions of global Moodle users. Although the 2015 MOOC has come to an end, Moodle has made all of the instructional videos available on YouTube.

As you may have already heard, Media@UCSF is fully integrated with the CLE, and provides instructors and students with tools to create and share videos in a course. We have been using this feature in the CLE since the Fall, and it’s been working great. And now we are excited to announce that one of its additional features, the Media Gallery, is fully deployed and ready for use!

What is the Media Gallery, who can add video to it, and how can it be used in a course? Here are a few highlights:

The Media Gallery is a collection of videos specific to one, and only one course.

It is accessible from the link in the Navigation block.

Faculty and students can add videos to the Media Gallery!

Student videos require (by default) moderation from a course editor.

Comments can be enabled.

This is a quick and easy way to post a video as a conversation starter before class.

The Gallery is a great way for students to share video project with their classmates.

A few gotchas to note about the Media Gallery:

We turned on the ability for students to submit videos to the Media Gallery on February 11th, 2015. If your course was created before then, and you have previously accessed the Media Gallery, you’ll need to enable the “moderate content” setting manually.

Media Gallery videos cannot be “imported” from course to course, so they do not “roll over” into the new semester’s course. It is very easy, however, to add videos back into the Media Gallery, because they are stored in the owner’s My Media repository, and it only takes a few clicks.

We have a full write up, including a downloadable PDF with step-by-step instructions, available in our Support Center: Media@UCSF documentation

Check it out, and let us know how you use the Media Gallery. If you have any questions, please contact us!

The login-logout and help links that appear at the top right of CLE pages will now remain visible at all times. Previously, as the screen size decreased (e.g., on tablets and smartphones), these links would disappear and move into the menu icon (also known as the hamburger icon). One needs to tap on the menu icon to view these links. Some users found this confusing and didn’t realize that they had to tap the menu icon to see the logout link. Now, these links remain on the page at all times. Also, since these links no longer move into the menu icon, we have moved the menu icon down to the menu bar. The menu icon will only appear when the page shrinks to the point where the menu can no longer fit on the page. As before, tapping the menu icon will open the menu.

Improved content view for iPads in portrait orientation

Prior to the interface update, course content on an iPad in portrait orientation could sometimes be confined to a small part of the screen. Course blocks (e.g., navigation) would still be present and force the main content area into a small space.

Now, after the update, the main course content area will now fill the entire page on iPads in portrait orientation, and any course blocks will move down below the main content area. This will permit important content, such as the Ilios course calendar, to occupy the entire width of the screen, making it much more useable.

We hope you like these changes. We will continue to improve the CLE interface based on feedback we receive. Please continue to let us know if you any ideas on how the CLE can be improved, either by completing the short CLE Refresh Survey, or contacting the Learning Technologies Group.

The Learning Technologies Group had a great time with the 2014 Tech Clinics and we were able to help with CLE and multimedia projects along the way! Here are a few examples of UCSF projects that faculty and staff brought to the Tech Clinics: CLE gradebook questions, Articulate module development, Media@UCSF integration in CLE courses, online exam review for finals and midterms, and we even helped support a UCSF podcast!

2015 is going to be even better and you can register for an upcoming Tech Clinic today! Tech Clinics are held at the UCSF Library, every second and forth Friday of the month, from 9am-4pm. We encourage people to register in advance, but drop-ins are welcome. Each Clinic offers short presentations and demos on popular topics throughout the day, as well as one-on-one support opportunities with Learning Technologies staff.

Here is what people are saying about the Tech Clinics:

“The Tech Clinic is a valuable, convenient, and wonderful resource. All my tech questions were answered and I received a follow-up email with additional resources to help me with my project. I appreciate the knowledge of the staff and how quick we were able to cover things. I look forward to using the service again in the future and will refer others to this great service.”

CLE Basics: This 90 minute training is offered on-demand at the start of every Tech Clinic. Have new staff or faculty using the CLE? This is the perfect opportunity to get them started on the right foot!

Get to know the Storyline Suite: We are thrilled to have Articulate Storyline available in the Tech Commons. Come see a demo of this powerful software and start your next UCSF project! Click to Register Now!

Online Exam and Gradebook: Have questions about CLE exams before, during, or after the semester? Need to fix a grading issue? The Tech Clinic is the place to get your questions answered! Click to Register Now!

Screencasting with Camtasia: Need to demonstrate how to use an application or website? Camtasia is a screencasting software used and supported in the Tech Commons’ eLearning Studio (CL-245). Camtasia is system agnostic (available on both the Mac and PC platforms).

2015 UCSF Library’s Tech Clinic Schedule (click the link for more information and to register):

The winter solstice just passed marking the onset of winter and it’s the perfect time to reflect on the year. Looking back on 2014, we in the Learning Technologies Group have many successes to be proud of. We’ve gathered some of our top accomplishments from the past year. Take a look at the below list and leave a comment to let us know what you think!

We transformed our workshops!

This year, LTG launched our new, more user-friendly approach to workshops called Tech Clinics. Clinics give our customers the opportunity to get help with whatever you need at any time during the Clinic. Liz Taylor introduced a new CLE Basics workshop and all together, we had more than 110 attendees to our Clinics in 2014. Don’t forget, if you need more assistance when we’re not available, check out our new Lynda.com kiosk now available in Tech Commons complete with Moodle and other ed tech tutorials.

LTG staff member Dylan Romero ventured to Montana to attend the 2014 Moodle Mountain Moot. This was an incredible opportunity to collaborate with other “Moodlers” on topics ranging from user documentation to quiz security. Dylan also had the opportunity to chat with Moodle Man himself about the opportunities and challenges of online learning!

We were out and about throughout UCSF campuses!

LTG extended our presence and gained exposure throughout UCSF through the following venues:

This past year, LTG delivered over two dozen presentations to various groups and stakeholders across campus educating over 400 users on different learning technology topics and our services in general. (Let us know if you want us to visit your department next!)

Sean McClelland was invited to deliver his Better Presenter training sessions four times to faculty, staff, and students.

Sean and Dylan presented at TLC Day delivering two workshops on exciting new ideas and technologies in education, Flipping the Classroom and Web Conferencing.

Dylan presented at the July Apple Play Date event on asynchronous tools in education. This experience was a catalyst to develop and support a School of Nursing assignment where students developed a PechaKucha learning activity.

We launched a new CLE Course Redesign Service!

Effective and engaging use of the CLE is just as important as making sure it runs well. This year, LTG launched a course redesign service to help faculty do what they do best and leave the course design to the professionals. Dylan and Liz helped faculty with a full-service redesign of their courses and countless staff and teaching assistants with thinking through the best way to design specific activities.

We stepped up our Articulate Studio support!

If you were looking to build an eLearning module, add some interaction to your course, or even just narrate some PowerPoint, it became easier than ever in 2014. Liz built an Articulate Studio support center and developed comprehensive documentation for using the tool. She helped dozens of customers build modules, narrate their presentations, and upload them to the CLE, including some with SCORM output for reporting to the CLE Gradebook.

We boosted our Quiz tool support!

LTG continued to revamp both online and in-person support for CLE Quizzes. (Don’t let the term “Quiz” fool you; these can be high-stakes exams taken by more than 150 students at a time). We listened to requests for more secure online exams and piloted Respondus Lockdown Browser during Summer 2014. The pilot was a success and we are eager to implement Respondus Lockdown Browser as a permanent part of the CLE in early 2015!

Convergence had an amazing year!

It was a banner year for our blog – yes, the one you are reading right now! Convergence had phenomenal success this year with a rise in readership. We posted a whopping 37 blog posts to give customers access to the latest and greatest information in learning technologies at UCSF. Liz’s August post on Personalizing CLE Courses was retweeted on Moodle News to over 8,000 followers.

We launched the Media@UCSF plug-in!

2014 brought the much-anticipated video sharing integration to the CLE! Now, anyone with a MyAccess account can upload, store, and share videos on the CLE to other UCSF affiliates.

We built a new Support Center!

This year, we built a new Support Center to house our documentation, tutorials, and resources to help you better use learning technologies at UCSF. With the roll out of this new site, Sean worked to clearly define our service offerings and create policies to help us deliver the best service possible. We also launched newly developed templates and style guides for new documentation. More details on this exciting new site coming in 2015!

Pfew, what a year it’s been! And we’re already working away on making 2015 another successful year! Some of the other services you can look forward to from the LTG are: